1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of and apparatus for recording a photographic image and, more particularly, to a method of and apparatus for producing a video signal in a television signal format, for example, by picking up a frame which stores a photographic image therein, to record the video signal in a recording medium.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There has been known an apparatus which picks up a photographic image, or picture, using an image pickup device which transforms it into a raster-scan type video signal such as a television (TV) signal, and, then, records the video signal in a recording medium, e.g. magnetic disc, magnetic tape or optical disc. The photographic image may be one of those stored in the frames of a negative or positive film, which may be colored or monochromatic, and those of prints, which may also be colored or monochromatic.
The stored video signal may be read out of such a recording medium to reproduce the image in the form of a soft copy on a video display such as a video monitor. Besides the soft copy, the video signal may be visualized in the form of a hard copy and is open to other various manners of later use.
Films storing photographic images and applicable to a video signal producing apparatus of the type described include a roll of long film and a circular disc of film. The roll type film is marketed in various standards, such as full and half sizes of JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) 135 type films and 110 type films, each having specific frames recordable with a length-to-width dimensional ratio particular thereto. That is, the size of a frame differs from one type of film to another over a wide range. In the case of printed pictures, or prints, they may be accommodated in a single elongated carrier so as to be supplied to the apparatus as a so-called print album. Besides such a continuous supply mode, prints may be supplied in a discrete, frame-by-frame mode.
In any case, an image or picture of the kind described may be displayed on a video display such as a TV picture for viewing. A problem encountered here is due to the fact that an ordinary TV receiver or a like video display which is generally usable as a monitor has a screen which is longer horizontally than vertically. Specifically, the standard screen of such a display has a horizontal-to-vertical dimensional ratio of 4:3, whereas the size of a photographic picture differs over a wide range and, in addition, images in some frames may be oriented vertically and those in some other frames horizontally, depending upon the selected position of a camera at the time of shooting. Furthermore, with the 135 type, full size frames, for example, images may sometimes be exposed in one top-bottom orientation and sometimes in the other top-bottom orientation with respect to the lengthwise direction of the film, although all of them may be in vertical positions. Likewise, even horizontally positioned frames may differ in top-bottom orientation depending upon the kind of a camera used. Despite the variety of sizes and orientation situations, the pictures should always be displayed on the horizontally long screen of the display in a correct top-bottom orientation and in adequate dimensions without loosing essential portions thereof.
In the case where images stored in the frames in various orientations as described above are picked up to record the resulting video signals in a recording medium, it is desirable that a number of frames be recorded within the shortest possible time in a predetermined sequence. Assuming that the video signals produced from an elongated film are recorded in a magnetic disc, for example, it would be convenient for the video signals to be recorded in the order of the frames of the film with respect to the lengthwise direction in the consecutive tracks of the disc, considering convenient access to the tracks during playback. Although an image may be rotated and/or a magnification varied by some technique whenever a frame in an orientation different from the preceding one appears, such reorientation consumes a substantial period of time for switching associated mechanisms and various processings and, thereby, increases the whole operation time. Especially, when the inversion of the top-bottom orientation may be implemented by an optical system and/or image processing within a relatively short time, as compared to the time required for a change of magnification associated with the vertical/horizontal position which is relatively long.